News

Minnesota and Wisconsin recently joined the list of states aiming for a 100% clean-energy future, while some Illinois lawmakers are pushing for not only carbon-free power, but also 100% renewable energy. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) was the latest to announce a set of policy proposals designed to lead his state’s electricity sector to 100% […]

An estimated 91% of U.S. coal power plants that submitted groundwater monitoring data as required by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 2015 Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) rule have unsafe levels of one or more contaminants, a collaborative analysis of the monitoring data by several environmental groups suggests.  The March 4 report is significant because power […]

Florida Power & Light (FPL) on March 4 announced plans to build four new solar power plants this year, with each expected to come online in early 2020. The company has rapidly expanded its solar power portfolio in recent years; the four new plants will join 18 others already operating in the state. FPL also […]

GE will provide its record-setting HA gas turbine, the company’s most advanced and efficient technology, for a project in eastern Ohio GE has secured 30+ orders for the HA in North America alone, and the HA recently surpassed 250,000 operating hours from 30+ commercially operating units ATLANTA; March 6, 2019 – GE Power (NYSE: GE) […]

When U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), he unintentionally ignited the worldwide deregulation of electricity markets, which in turn began a worldwide technology race between two distinct types of power plants: the newly created, industrial-scale plant that PURPA dubbed “cogeneration” and the traditional, utility-scale power […]

Grappling with a historically low planning reserve margin of 7.4%, owing to a mass of coal plant closures, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is forecasting record electric use this summer and warns it could issue energy alerts at “various times.”  ERCOT said its March 5–released final Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy (SARA) for […]

DNV GL launches Joint Industry Project to analyse damage caused to wind turbine blades from the high-speed impacts of foreign objects Group of industry experts will jointly develop Recommended Practice for designing a protection system against rain erosion, to be published in 2020 Project partners include Vestas, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, LM Wind Power, Ørsted, […]

Moscow, Russia. RusHydro announces commissioning of the third hydropower unit at Ust-Srednekanskaya hydropower plant, the country’s largest hydropower plant currently under construction located on the Kolyma River in the Magadan region of the Far Eastern Federal District. The plant’s installed capacity increased almost two fold – from 168 MW to 310.5 MW. Nikolay Shulginov, Chairman […]

– Installation of more than 1 million solar panels included as part of FPL’s plan to add 30 million more solar panels by 2030 – New solar plants will create about 800 jobs as Florida continues to lead the nation in solar-related employment – With 18 solar power plants in operation and four more on […]

COMMENTARY Are power purchase and similar agreements excluded from the automatic stay under the safe harbor for forward contracts? Both the FirstEnergy Solutions and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) bankruptcies have seen proceedings regarding power purchase and similar agreements (PPAs) that raise this question. Contracts often contain provisions that enable a party to terminate or modify […]

Detecting machine problems has never been so easy. New portable sensor and intuitive mobile app from SKF puts simplified inspection, machine health data collection and expert analysis within everyone’s reach. Lansdale, Pa. — March 4, 2019 — SKF Pulse™ combines an easy-to-use handheld sensor with a new mobile app, allowing users to quickly monitor rotating […]

Several developments worldwide impacted the power generation landscape in the past week, including more news about the closure of a coal-fired power plant in Alabama, the restart of a geothermal facility in Hawaii, and construction of a biomass-fueled power plant in Japan. In addition, a company said it plans a $150 million investment in three […]

The New York-based hedge fund aiming to take over New Mexico’s San Juan Generating Station (SJGS), targeted for closure by state lawmakers, wants to refit the 46-year-old, coal-fired plant to use carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. Acme Equities LLC said last week that retrofitting the 847-MW plant with CCS technology would cut carbon emissions […]

Energy supplies are tight in the Pacific Northwest, a region that has been stricken with unseasonably frigid weather and is bracing for deep freezes as a mass of Arctic air descends on the region.    The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a federal power marketer that sells wholesale power from 31 federal dams and one nuclear […]

After the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami, and ensuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011, Japan issued stringent safety regulations and reviews that affected its entire 50-reactor fleet. It meant that as each Japanese nuclear reactor entered its scheduled maintenance and refueling outage, it could not returned to operation until restart […]

Eight years after Germany decided it would halt nuclear power production by 2022, the country that relied on lignite and hard coal for 38% of its generated power in 2018 will phase out coal by 2038 or earlier

The SES Saran solar power plant entered commercial operation in late January in Saran, in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, an area long known for its coal production. Government officials said the plant is

Dust collection plays a vital role for safe and efficient power plant operation. There are a number of dust collection options available to plant designers, and baghouses have gained wide acceptance. The

One of the oldest energy efficiency ideas—combined heat and power—is prospering in the U.S. and looks promising elsewhere as the world searches for low-cost energy by increasing efficiency while lowering

After Hurricane Maria left the island of Puerto Rico in ruins, the ProCaribe liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) hub continued to operate, ensuring vital energy resources were available even in the wake of this

Fast neutron reactor systems have the potential to extract 60 times more energy from uranium compared to existing thermal reactors, and they contribute to a significant reduction in the burden of radioactive

As the world grapples with climate change concerns, carbon capture and storage could be the holy grail for continued fossil fuel use. Projects have come online that prove its feasibility, but costs can be

Battery storage technology has moved in fits and starts, but today experts note that rapid advances make it difficult for safety standards to keep pace. Developers of storage systems are designing projects to

Gas turbines come in a variety of sizes. While large combustion turbines seem to get the bulk of the publicity, with the likes of Siemens, GE, and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems making the most noise

It makes sense that solar panels would perform better when positioned to capture more direct sunlight, but the cost of adding tracking systems has not always penciled out. Costs have come down, however, and

Water quality monitoring and control are two of the most critical operations that power plants employ to protect assets, such as boilers and steam turbines, from corrosion by assuring the correct addition of

If you’ve been following the news, you know that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because it is facing tens of billions of dollars in liability for

One of the largest hurdles to delivering substantial amounts of renewable energy is transmission constraints. Los Angeles’ current in-basin transmission infrastructure is based largely on delivering power

The Distribution System Is Newest Energy Transition Frontier in Europe. The European power sector is urging member states and regulators within the European Union (EU) to speed up development of

The market for mobile and smaller-scale power generation continues to grow. Commercial and industrial sites are using generators to produce their own power, often to ensure a constant flow of electricity in